The Everyday Cinephile.: Recap & Review: Mad Men--"A Tale of Two Cities" Grade: B+

Season: 6
Episode: 10
Director: John Slattery
Original Air Date: June 2, 2013

60 second recap:
Roger, Don and Harry visit a client out in California. Don has a hallucination about Megan after taking some drugs and almost drowns in a pool. Ted makes major progress with Chevy after a visit to Detroit. Ginsberg butts heads with Cutler over politics. Bob is promoted to the Chevy account by Cutler after going to the Manischewitz meeting with Ginsberg. Joan stumbles upon a potential new client after a dinner date with the new head of marketing at Avon. She ignores protocol and takes the account into her own hands. Manischewitz puts the company on review. The partners finally decide on a name for the company.

Overall:
Although it was entertaining (as all Mad Men episodes are), this episode didn't break very much new ground. For the most part, it just reinforced what we already knew about the characters (Don is a cheater, Roger is a charming asshole, Pete feels unappreciated, Joan is sick of being treated like the secretary, etc). But we did get some interesting new insights into Cutler and Benson.

This week's episode tastefully covered the 1968 Democratic National Convention riots. Politics are slowly becoming intertwined with business, much to Cutler's dismay. While the younger generation (Megan, Stan and Ginsberg) is passionately affected by the news, some of the other generations (Don and Joan) are having a harder time displaying their feelings. Although they may be be personally affected by it, they keep their feelings mostly to themselves. It will be interesting to see how they react to all the political tension that will only get more passionate as time goes by.

The show is at its best when it's at the office, especially in the meeting room or at the creatives table. The chemistry between everyone at the office is such a delight to watch. When the characters are separated from each other for too long the scenes tend to drag a bit (all the California scenes, especially when Don is alone). Don's drug hallucination was well done though; very eerie and disorienting.

From a technical standpoint, Mad Men is on point once again with its cinematography. There were so many gorgeous shots this week; Cutler standing by the window, Don face down in the pool and most notably the entire slow motion shot of Pete smoking.

Character Development:

Don/Megan:
It's hard to tell whether Don and Megan's marriage is on the mends or they're just putting a bandage on a mortal wound. The opening scenes had some telling lines:

Megan: "Stay away from actresses."
Don: "I hate actresses."

Megan may be alluding to the fact that she's not as clueless as we think. She knows that Don has a wandering eye and that women throw themselves at him. When Don says he "hates actresses" he may be pretending to be joking but we as viewers know he's actually being really honest here. He hates being married to an actress. He hates the attention Megan gets from strangers. He hates the things that go along with her job, like having love scenes with other actors. He hates that he has to compete with acting for Megan's attention. He loved her most when she was working alongside him in the office. There she complimented him. With acting, she's competing against him.

Don: "We'll go back to Disney Land, from what I remember something amazing happened there."
Megan: "I made the biggest mistake of my life."

For Don, that "something amazing" was the start of his and Megan's relationship. It was just "the beginning of things". Megan wasn't a living, breathing person at that point. She was just an idea of a person; a beautiful sex object who was good with kids. Don was her whole life at that point. For Megan, marrying Don may have actually been the biggest mistake of her life. Yes, her acting career probably wouldn't have been possible without the financial support of someone like Don but, was it worth it? Don has already done (and surely will keep on doing) a number on Megan's psychological health. She's already becoming a shadow of the strong, independent woman she used to be. Megan needs to be with someone who is supportive of her career and doesn't feel the need to dominate every woman around him.

Don later has his drug induced hallucination. First he sees a very free spirited, pregnant Megan, then a one armed version of the soldier he met in Hawaii and finally a disturbing vision of himself lying face down in the pool which actually turns out to really be happening to him. All of this occurs right after he kisses a women at the party. There's no way of knowing for sure whether the kiss was also just part of the hallucination but either, way it does shed some light into Don's subconscious. It seems like there's at least some form of remorse, however tiny, over his constant cheating on Megan. It's interesting that she appears pregnant. Does Don want to have a baby with her? Does he think that having a baby would help fix their marriage? Or is he actually dreading the thought of having a child with her? The dead soldier and the image of himself drowned in a pool are eerie reminders of how 'dead' Don is inside. We've always known him to be a very lost, almost sociopathic man but this adds an even darker quality to him. Whatever semblance of a soul Don once had is long gone. He's not able to fully grasp or hold onto real emotions. He's addicted to the idea of being the person he's "supposed to be" (successful, charming, a family man, etc.) but in reality he's nothing like that person at all. He's like a shark that has to constantly be moving just to survive. If he stands still that means he'll have to actually deal with who is on the inside and that would kill him.

Cutler:

Although he's a lot less cool, calm and collected, Cutler has a certain 'Roger-ness' to him. He's a little kooky, has the glasses and salt and pepper look and, he's really good at zingers:

Bob Benson: "I don't mean to interrupt..."

Cutler: "That's what you're doing."

and earlier....

Pete: "What do the C's stand for?"

Cutler: "Not Campbell."

In this episode we get to see what his feelings are towards the merger. So far, it's not looking very good. He sees everything in black and white; ours or theirs. Ted tries to convince him (and later Pete) that they're all working for the same team but Cutler doesn't see it that way. Cutler is becoming a much more conniving and calculating character that he appeared to be at first. He clearly knew that sending Bob and Ginsberg to the Manischewitz meeting alone was going to be a win-win for him. If it went badly, Ginsberg could potentially be fired. If Bob also got fired then it was no big deal. But if he didn't, Bob was now under Cutler's control. Cutler recognized Bob's overwhelming desire to please and used it to his advantage. By giving him bigger responsibility on the Manischewitz account, Cutler helped sow the seeds of loyalty. He knows that now Bob will do whatever Cutler asks of him. Promoting Bob to the Chevy account afterwards even further solidified this. Cutler is a man that knows what he's doing. It will be interesting to see how destructive he will be to SC&P.

Bob "Bunson" Benson:
So is Bob Benson really a covert spy, hellbent on bringing the company down and exploiting his superiors? Sadly, it looks like Bob might just be your average lowly accounts man trying to climb his way up the rickety, booby trapped corporate ladder. Seeing him sitting at his desk (and for once, not downstairs!), eyes closed, listening to a self help record was like pulling back the curtain and seeing the real Wizard of Oz. Bob's incessant cheerfulness and optimism all make sense now. He's determined to make a name for himself, maybe even own an ad agency of his own someday. And even though he doesn't have all the skills right now, he's going to "fake it 'till he makes it".

Dear old Bob says it best himself, "you can't put yourself in the right place at the right time, you gotta be in the right place, all the time."

Joan/Peggy:
Poor Joanie. She's just sick of being disrespected and unappreciated by her coworkers. She saw an opportunity to redeem herself and she took it. Unfortunately, she had to burn a few bridges with Pete and Ted to get there. Joan is so eager to prove herself that she doesn't think things through. She's too proud to admit that what she did wasn't very smart. Although she's clearly good at getting clients interested, she simply hasn't had the experience to know what to do next. Her stubbornness is just part of the wall she puts up around herself. She's been let down, abandoned and used for her looks by nearly all the important men in her life. She has to keep up the strong, confident, intimidating facade she's created for herself to survive.

Peggy is caught between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand, she wants Joan to have a bigger part in getting the Avon account. Even though she still fears Joan, she does feel a certain camaraderie with her as one of the only "important" women in the office. She sees the injustices that Joan goes through on a daily basis (remember Joey's crude sexual drawings of Joan back in season 4?) and she really does think that Joan deserves to have a bigger part in the Avon account. But on the other hand, Peggy also respects authority and doesn't like going behind Pete and Ted's back.

Everyone else:
What a delight it was to see Daniel again! (it's interesting that the show keeps bringing back old characters like Duck and Daniel, yet there is still no sign of Sal) Watching Roger interact with Daniel was the highlight of the episode, especially Daniel's kick to Roger's groin. Even though Roger had it coming for him, you have to admit you were kind of rooting for him. Daniel is very much caught up in the whole narcissistic Hollywood bubble. It was nice to see Roger refuse to buy into all of that.

Pete. Oh, Pete. He's falling even further into the ditch (that he helped dig) and it looks like he's going to be there for a while. His personal life has completely fallen apart and now his professional life is following suit. He hates watching other people do better than him, especially Joan. It was different watching Peggy rise through the ranks; she was in a completely separate department than his. But in his eyes, Joan was and still is just a glorified secretary. She can't do his job like he can. There's no way a man could be interested in what she has to say, only how she looks. For all his progressive views towards race, its interesting that Pete still has so many archaic views towards women.

Rogerisms of the week:
-"It was a whole series of busts, and not the kind I like."
-"Be slick. Be glib. Be you!"
-"The job of your life is to know yourself. Apparently I'm a curious child with a full head of hair and a thriving business."

Favorite moments:
1. Roger's entire interaction with "Daniel"; whether its firing a guy for a second time or just making fun of a less than talented ex employee's height, there's no stopping our favorite silver tongued businessman. It's not surprising that an episode directed by John Slattery had some of Roger's best quips to date.
2. Cutler's fight with Ginsberg; although Ginsberg's outburst was completely unprofessional and downright idiotic, its no a secret that Ginsberg is a bit of a neurotic oddball. Surely Cutler was aware of this. For him to engage and provoke someone as unstable as Ginsberg was pretty odd. Perhaps that says something about Cutler's personality.
3. Peggy saving Joan; I always root for these two to get along. They've had their ups and down, but at the end of the day they do genuinely seem care about each other. There are so few women with real power in the office to begin with, it would be a shame for them not to help each other out.
4. Stan & Ginsberg. Is there ever a scene with these two that isn't amazing? If only there were a whole episode dedicated just to them. Their relationship is such a delight to watch. (Ginsberg: "I love you [Stan], you know that. You're a mother hen.") Someone needs to draw a picture of Stan as a mother hen watching over a crazed, lunatic baby chick Ginsberg, STAT.
5. Pete smoking pot. For some reason, the idea of Pete becoming a mellowed out pot head sounds wonderful. Maybe this is exactly what he needs to get back in the game?

Let's take a moment to appreciate all the "judging you right now" faces of this episode: